A “New Kind” of Battered Woman: Challenges for the Movement

The Influence of Gender Role Stereotyping on Women's Experiences of Female Same-Sex Intimate Partner Violence

“…Several authors have identified the need for a complex theory of IPV that takes into account the varied dimensions of human identity and social status, including race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and disability on women's experiences of IPV (Gilbert, 2002;Greene, 2000;Hanson & Maroney, 1999;Merrill, 1999;Ristock, 2002;Van Natta, 2005). Much of this discussion has highlighted the heterosexist and Eurocentric nature of the dominant gender-based discourses of IPV that currently guide the philosophy and worldviews of the majority of domestic violence service agencies currently operating in the United States (Elliot, 1999;Garcia, 1999;Ristock, 2002). Consistent with findings reported in other studies of FSSIPV, our findings revealed that the hegemony of gender-based analysis of IPV was a barrier to help seeking for many women in our study.…”

Same-Sex Intimate Partner Violence: Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Affirmative Outreach and Advocacy

“…Island and Letellier (1991) asserted that lesbian and gay batterers create a challenge to the field of IPV by necessitating the extension of power analyses to include those relationships not fitting neatly into the male/female dyad. Because of an effort to present an acceptable model of domestic abuse to society, LGB relationship violence was, and continues to be, frequently overlooked (García, 1999;Girshick, 2002;Renzetti, 1992). Although there was always a need for the feminist movement to recognize IPV and sexual assault within same-sex relationships as real and serious issues, there have been only recent attempts to more fully understand and advocate against violence in same-sex relationships.…”

“…Early antirape efforts were considered "a social movement within a social movement" and relied extensively on the larger feminist movement for strength and support (Bevacqua, 2000, p. 27). However, García (1999) argued that in an attempt to facilitate the acknowledgement of violence against women as a significant social issue, the movement became somewhat polarized.…”

Expanding the Intersectional Paradigm to Better Understand Domestic Violence in Immigrant Communities

“…Abraham (2000a) provides us with insight into the ethno-gender approach which requires us to understand the simultaneity of lived experience and structured conditions based on ethnicity and gender. With all these strikes against them, immigrant lesbians of color experience an even greater level of oppression (Garcia 1999). Through the combined effects of racism and xenophobia in feminist and lesbian communities, and sexism and internalized oppression in communities of color, these women are too often silenced and made invisible.…”